Mom Makes Son Hold Sign As Punishment For Cursing At Teacher

Twelve-year-old Erol Faustin got a very public lesson on how not to talk to adults, WSVN-TV reports.

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When his teacher asked him to remove is book bag, he cursed at her. “He told her he doesn’t give an ‘f,’ ‘b,’” revealed Lisette Lopez, the boy’s mother. “Those words are not acceptable in my house,” she added. The pre-teen’s foul-mouthed response got him suspended from James S. Rickards Middle School in Oakland Park, Fla., for three days. But his mother did not feel that was a strong enough punishment.

So, she made Erol hold a a sign in front of the entire school that read, in part: “I disrespected my teacher. I would like to apologize not only to that teacher but to all adults.” For each of the three days he is suspended, Erol will hold the sign during morning hours and at dismissal.

Lopez, who accuses Faustin of acting like “more of a class clown” during the current school year, insisted that she has tried having long talks with Faustin, and has even taken him to counseling, all to no avail. “He’s had support from the after school community,” she said. The sign, she insisted, is being used as a last resort and not to humiliate him in front of his peers.

“This isn’t for a punishment,” said Lopez. “It’s for him to understand that I’ve tried everything I could and if this is what it takes, then this is what it takes.”

Lopez said that Faustin’s father has a criminal record, and she does not want her son to go down the same path.

She added that as an older sibling, Faustin has a responsibility to refrain from immature acts. “He has a younger sister and brother who look up to him. He needs to be a role model,” she said.